First evaluation of the EFSI fund

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has performed the First evaluation of the EFSI fund. This is a preliminary evaluation of the EFSI fund which was established to provide much needed investment capital to European projects and European enterprises.

EFSI, also called as the Juncker plan, became operational in September 2014. EFSI was created under considerable opposition from several European stakeholder groups in particular from the Academic sector. The opposition was, as we have reported previously, due to considerable tapping from other funding sources such as Horizon 2020, the Connecting Europe facility and the European Institute for Technology.

Also critics pointed out that the objective of EFSI, to mobilize private capital to fund strategic investments, was unrealistic.

The EIB report is interesting. One of the key finding is that in fact EFSI has successfully mobilized private funding and is close to reach its target to mobilize over 300 billion EUR investment capital in the form of loans for different types of projects. In addition, it seems that EFSI funding has been well received and over 100 billion EUR worth of investments have been mobilized. However, the EIB notes that administration is lagging behind and contract signatures represent a considerable bottleneck.

In addition the EIB has identified several areas that need improvement in the future, such as information sharing, regulatory and structural reforms to remove barriers for investment.

Furthermore, the EIB evaluation has identify a clear geographic concentration of EFSI loans to the EU 15 countries. In fact, the EIB notes that as much as 92% of EFSI loan are provided to the EU 15 countries (EU 15 are countries that were EU members states before 2004). The more recent EU member states (EU 13) have only received 8% of the loans mobilized by EFSI.

It should be noted that the evaluation does not include areas such as Impact on the European Economy. Since EFSI has only been operational since September 2014 the EIB feels that it is to early to make conclusions and make recommendations.

Ingemar Pongratz is founder of Fenix Scientific AB / Pongratz Consulting. We help Universities, enterprises and other organizations to apply for European funding, in particular from Horizon 2020. If you wish to discuss how we can support you project proposal please contact us either through the online contact form or by email to: